Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-07-14
An Early Christian Cemetery.

There was recently printed in the
London Times an account of the dis
coyery of an early Christian cemetery
near Alexandria. 1t is underlying the
sand hills and rubbish heaps which lie
to right and left of the Ramieh line,
about half way between Alexandria
and Mustapha Pasha station. Some
where hereabouts stood the city and
camp of Nicopolis, SO called in mem
DRY of the victory which Augustus
here achieved over Antony and his
adherents; and not far from the same
spot stands, or till lately stood, the lit
tie cupola-topped building in which
Sir Ralph Abercro1nby breathed his
last. The mounds are full of frag-
ments of sculpture, broken bones, pct
terry, and the like, and the Arabs are
constantly digging them in search of
limestone, which they burn in extern
ported kllns all over the ground. In
the course of these diggings the above
mentioned cemetery was discovered
early in the past month.
Following the course of the Ramieh
line, at little distance beyond the
Chat BeY station, one comes to ris-
ing ground on the summit of which is
q Roman wall running parallel with
the railway toward the east, and turn
ing northward at right angles toward
the seashore. A breach in this wall
gives access to a place in which the
natives have excavated two or three
pits, distant about one hundred yards
from each other, and about fifty
yards or so from the shore. In the
furthest of these we'll was discovered,
| and close against the well doorway
cut in the solid rock which here I'M
derlies the mounds. Entering by this
| doorway, one stands in kind of irreg-
ular subterraneous crypt, surrounded
by rockcut locul. These loculi meas
ure nine feet in length by from four to
six feet in width, and are ranged one
above another, in two and sometimes
three tiers, fifteen to the right and
| twenty-three to the left of the central
passage.
In each recess, strange to say, were
found ten skeletons, all apparently
skeletons of men, the bones being very
large. One of the skulls. taken up at
random, was found to measure twenty
four inches in circumference. In all
the teeth are sound and white, and
firmly fixed in their sockets. In an
| other pit, little further TO the east
ward, long gallery, with similar
series of loculi on one side only, has
also been found. AT the end of this
gallery was large doorway filled up
| with stone slabs set in cement. Count
d'Hulst, from whom we have these par
ticulars, caused this doorway to be
broken through, and found trans
verse gallery, with more loculi of the
same kind, beyond. Terra-cotta lamps
have been found with a few of the
skeletons, some impressed with an
| eight-pointed cross, some with q priest
| ly figure in the attitude of benediction,
and some with I. II. S. Over one
niche is painted q palm-branch orna-
| ment, and other -obliterated Chris
| tian ornaments are here and there
painted on the ceilings of the galleries.
| About hundred yards to the west
ward of the first of these pits another
4 excavation has disclosed yet more OF
| these interments, in loculi of two and
| three tiers deep. Hence it seems prob
| able that the whole area inclosed by
| the Roman wall is in fact one vast
cemetery. Some shattered terra-cotta
| collins, without inscriptions and with
out any traces of human remains, have
been found irregularly buried in parts
of the superimposed rubbish mounds.
These are evidently of later date.
The Arab Gme-burners are actively
| continuing these excavations, and it is
| to be hoped that some inscription
throwing light upon the circumstances
which caused the death and burial of
SO large body of tail men in the
prime of life may before long be dis
covered.